


You're Not Alone

by tiredgaykeith



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A little angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Homesickness, M/M, after shiro disappears, homesick keith (voltron), in between episodes 3 and 4, when you can only find kLANCE and want some laith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 09:16:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12055896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredgaykeith/pseuds/tiredgaykeith
Summary: The team is worried about Keith, and Lance sets out to figure out the problem.





	You're Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Keith centric Keith/Lance fic, cause they're kinda hard to find. Enjoy.

“Hey, uh, Lance?” 

Lance looked up from flipping through his most recent pictures from their last visit on his phone, currently flopped lazily on the couch in the main room. 

“What’s up buddy?” Lance smiled up at his long time best friend, but the smile slowly melted off his face as Hunk sat down next to him, hunched over and looking worried. 

“Well, it’s about Keith. You see-”

Lance sat up quickly, glaring back at Hunk. “What’d he do?”

Hunk stared back confused. “Huh?”

“I swear whatever he did I’ll get him back for you ten times squared I swear on my fucking-”

“Lance.”

Lance had gotten up during his spiel and was pacing around the room. He stopped his pacing, and sat next to Hunk again, waiting for him to continue.

Hunk sighed, looking down at his folded hands. “He didn’t do anything. That’s... kind of the point. I’m worried about Keith, Lance.”

Lance gave him a questioning look, but sighed and gave in. “Why? What’s up?”

“Well,” Hunk started, “He’s always been distant you know? Ever since we got here. But he would still come to dinner, and talk with Shiro and me sometimes, and be active around the castle. But lately he hasn’t done any of that, Lance. He’s always in the training room, rarely eats, and I know he’s missing Shiro like crazy, but I think there is more to it than we’re seeing.”

Lance leaned forward on his elbows and rested his chin on his palm. He understood where Hunk was coming from. Keith had been particularly distant as of late. He figured Keith would get better as time let him heal from Shiro’s disappearance, but he had yet to see any real progress.

“What do you mean ‘more than we’re seeing’?” Lance asked. 

Hunk looked to him, concern growing heavier in his eyes. “Well, Pidge told me the other day she was headed down to the training room to find some extra parts from some of the bots for an AI she’s building. Well, apparently...”

Hunk trailed off for a moment before he finished, “Keith was like, crying, man. He was holding some little book, apparently. Keith was just sitting in the middle of the training deck, but when Pidge walked in she swore she thought his eyes were red. He ran out before Pidge could talk to him though.”

Lance tried to find the right words of what to say to calm Hunk, but it was difficult. He was genuinely speechless. This was Keith. The hotheaded, flashy loner of the group. The one that he fought with endlessly before they became the duo they were now most of the time. Sure, Keith had moments where he faltered, but they were usually outbursts of anger that turned into arguments with him. Never something like crying. 

“Okay, I get it,” Lance slapped a reassuring hand on Hunk’s back and stood up, walking towards the doorway out to the main hall, “Give me sometime. I’ll figure this out, ‘kay?”

With a short exchange of reassurances to Hunk and a wave, Lance left and headed down the hall silently

He decided to try Keith’s bedroom first. If Keith was there, he could talk to him and maybe if he was lucky, see what was up. If he wasn’t it still provided some excellent snooping time for him. He continued walking until he reached Keith’s bedroom doors. He stepped closer, and the doors shot open. It was cold and dark inside, no sign of Keith himself. 

Perfect. 

While Lance didn’t exactly like the thought of sneaking through Keith’s room for hints of what’s going on inside the guy’s head, he didn’t have much of a choice. 

Keith had always been closed off, even once they began to get closer after Shiro’s disappearance. Sure, Keith had finally starting to talk to him, opening up about mundane things, like his favorite space goo recipe and things to do around the ship. Him and Lance even shared some laughs and good times when Lance asked him to train him more with close combat. But Keith was still that unreadable factor in the equation, no matter how hard they all tried to crack it. 

Lance slowly edged into his room, the doors shutting behind him and the lights switching on. Lance surveyed the room. At first appearance there wasn’t much there. Keith’s jacket was gone, which probably meant he was in the training deck. His bed was neat, and there were no extra decorations around the room. 

Lance got close to the bed and opened up the cabinet under the bedside table. 

“Aha!” Lance pulled out a medium sized metal box, probably found from somewhere the ship, “Knew you were the type to hide all your deep, dark secrets. So, what weird shit you got in here?”

Lance carefully opened the lid, but was surprised to what he found, reading the large letters across the top of the book. 

Lance, as carefully as possible, flipped through the worn pages, taking in the content piece by piece. He felt his eyes water a little but forced himself back into composure. 

“Oh, Keith...” Lance sighed, realizing all at once why Keith had been acting strange. 

Being more distant than usual. The red eyes. The staring out into open space. 

Yeah, Lance understood. 

Just as Lance was about to keep flipping through the pages to find out more, he heard far off steps coming down the corridor. Lance quickly shut the book and placed the metal box back carefully, reaching the door just as Keith was walking through it.

“Ahh!” Keith shouted, startled by Lance’s presence, “What the hell are you doing in here?”

Lance noticed Keith did in fact have red rimming his dark eyes. 

Lance sputtered to cover himself. “Uh, I was, uh, looking for you! Yeah, wanted to see if you... wanted to try sparing again. I know you totally beat me last time but I’ve been practicing with Allura and-”

“Lance.”

Keith stopped him, looking over into the corner of the room, eyes soft in a way that made Lance feel uncomfortable. “Sorry, but I’m not really interested today.”

“Oh,” Lance tried to find his footing again, moving past Keith. “Well, uh, maybe tomorrow, or something, that’s cool too. Or like, not ever, if you just don’t want to that’s totally fine-” Keith’s door shut, and Lance was back in the hallway, the door between them shutting Lance away from his partner. 

Lance started walking down towards his own room, brainstorming random ideas until-

Lance’s eyes lit up. 

“That’s it,” he said softly, and headed down the direction of the main flight deck where Allura would be. 

He wanted Keith to feel better, and he knew just how. 

 

Keith found himself wandering into the flight deck, a few cycles after he had found Lance standing awkwardly in the middle of his room. 

Ever since that day, everyone had been... weird. Weirder than normal. Everyone usually gave him his space, but now everyone would randomly check in with him through the day. Hunk at meal time, Allura at the training deck, and Pidge before bedtime in the hanger. Hell, even Coran found some time to ask Keith how things were going randomly in the halls a few times. 

The only person he had rarely seen was Lance. He was always rushing off somewhere in the ship when they weren’t on a mission. He had asked Hunk and Allura a few times if he was up to something, but they both insisted they had no idea what Lance was up to. It did make him a bit down, admittedly, thinking the one person he was slowly getting close with was now ignoring his existence, but he tried to ignore it and focus on the missions at hand. 

Allura called for the paladins to form at the flight deck, most likely a new mission. Keith silently wished they were able to get a short break. They had just gotten back from another mission a day ago, but with the Galra forces weakened they needed to strike fast and gain allies where it counted. So Keith did what he had to and sucked it up. 

That’s what Shiro would have done. 

Keith kicked the thought out of his head. 

“Alright, what’s going on?” Keith asked, the team already formed around a holographic planet looking intently. 

Weird, Keith was always usually the first to show up. 

“We received a distress signal from this planet, Hubios. A deserted planet now, but once was a large meca for trade and commerce back when Altea was around, “Allura pointed to a spot on the glowing orb, “Here is where the distress signal came in. The people of Hubios were once believed to be killed off by the Galra, but this could be a chance that they have survived. We need to check it out, they were incredibly intelligent people. They could be great allies in the coalition. I think it’s best if only you and Lance go, though.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, glancing over to Lance, who was just nodding seriously and listening. 

Even weirder. 

“We need the Black Lion there to show that we do still have all of Voltron,” Allura explained, “Especially with these rumors coming out saying we don’t. And Red is the only other lion that can withstand the heat of the planet.”

Keith nodded, huffing out a long breath. 

“Alright, we’ll go now,” he said, and the team quickly dispersed, but not before he noticed Lance giving him a strange look he couldn’t quite place, before quickly turning away. 

_ Why is everyone so damn weird lately _ , he grumbled in the back of his head, heading down the shot to Shiro’s lion below. 

  
  


As they touched down on Hubios, it was hard for Keith to see his surroundings at first. It was still just around right before dawn on the planet, and seeing as the planet lacked a moon, it was pretty much pitch black outside of Black’s lights.

“Lance, you there?” Keith asked hesitantly, looking around on where they had landed. According to his readings, it looked like a plateau of some sort. 

“Yeah man! Right behind you!” Lance’s voice shot over the microphone, “Hey listen to me for a second. You trust me right?”

Keith narrowed his eyes, looking back at Red (that was still so weird, to him, looking at his own lion through another lion’s eyes), seeing Red sitting calmly on the rock.

“I mean, yeah, I guess,” Keith hesitantly replied, “What’s this about?”

“Step outside your hatch.”

“What?” Keith sputtered. 

This was an alien planet, one apparently no one had been on for thousands of years. “Lance we are literally on an alien planet how could you suggest-”

“Keith.”

Keith stopped, hearing the tone in Lance’s voice that always made him stop to listen. “Trust, remember?”

Keith was unsure still, but Lance was right. He had to trust him. And if Lance was getting out, which it sounded like from the sounds in his mic, Keith had to follow him out too. No way he could just sit by and possibly...

_ Possibly lose another teammate _ . 

Keith physically shook his head that time, climbing from his seat. Not something he wanted to think about. 

Keith carefully exited the hatch, sword drawn, just in case. But he was surprised to find Lance waiting outside, with his helmet off, leaning almost too casually on a large boulder. 

The sun was slowly rising, and Keith could now take in a bit more of his surroundings. They were on high ground, the plateau higher than he expected. The rocky ground beneath him felt dry, cracked. The sky was turning into a faded purple blue color, small clouds dispersed against the rising dawn. 

Keith looked to Lance, utterly confused. “What’s going on? What about the mission?”

Lance walked up and calmly removed Keith’s helmet for him. The rush of fresh wind hit his face, cool and soft.

“This is the mission,” Lance looked behind Keith, eyes, glowing with something Keith still was unable to describe, “Look.”

Keith slowly turned around, and his eyes widened. 

The sky poured out into a rainbow of colors, a dawn that wasn’t just red and orange but pink and purple, and even splashes of green. The stars trickled through, shimmering like glitter above them. It was breathtaking. 

But that wasn’t what made Keith’s breath hitch in his throat. Standing there, on a plateau, he looked out and saw a vast, crimson valley of rock and dust. Dunes stretched out for miles, past what his mere eyes could see. There wasn’t a single trace of life, but Keith could feel the pulse of the land around him. The wind whispered through his ears and brought him back to his shack, that tiny shack he grew up in, the hearty laughter of his father, the long conversations about life and where Keith was going with Shiro under the night sky. 

Everything came rushing back to him.

“Hey, um, uh, Keith?” Lance sounded worried, though Keith wasn’t sure why, “Hey, buddy? I... I’m sorry, this was such a stupid idea I thought maybe you were homesick and I just thought after seeing your book you would-”

“My book?” Keith turned around to him, before feeling water in his eyes and turned away, “When did you see my book-”

Oh. Right. “You found it that time you were in my room,” Keith said softly, breathing deep. 

The air smelt cold and sandy. Salty, even, almost like beach air. 

“I shouldn’t have done it man,” Lance started pacing behind him, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make things worse I just wanted you to feel better. Shiro’s gone, and I know how hard you took it... and...”

There was a pause, Keith wasn’t sure he would finish before Lance softly, almost whispered, “I was worried about you, okay?”

Keith stood still for a minute, taking in the slowly brightening desert around him, before he moved to the edge of the cliff. 

“Sit,” Keith told him, sitting in an awkward criss-cross on the ground, not the easiest thing to do in their armor.

Keith almost chuckled to himself hearing Lance’s confused, “...Huh?”

“Come here,” Keith looked behind him, flashing Lance a small smile to show him it was okay, before Lance finally gave in and sat with him on the rough, desert ground. 

Keith took in a deep breath of the fresh air and smiled. “It doesn’t really smell the same. The desert air back home smelled drier, and there was always a tiny hint of fuel running through it from all the fighter jets the Garrison had passing by.”

Lance gave him a strange look at first, before taking a deep breath, and laughing softly. “Heh, guess your right.”

They sat in an awkward silence for sometime, the sun still taking it’s time to meet the horizon. 

Keith took in a shaking breath. 

“You know,” Keith swallowed, “My dad used to drag me up these huge plateaus, just like this one, starting when I was like, nine or something. I’d complain and complain the entire way up at first, but then you reached the top and you’d just see...”

Keith gestured out in front of him, aware of the small smile he let show on his face. “All of this.”

He could see Lance nodding out of the corner of his eyes. “Yeah, I totally get it. Back when we still lived in Cuba, my older brother Jonah would force me along on this long hike, through the forests. I’d get eaten up from the bugs but then we reached this beautiful quiet beach, and we’d surf, and eat the  _ mixtos  _ Mama would prepare. And watch the sunset...”

Lance went quiet, and they were once again left in silence, before he swallowed loudly and asked, “That book, how long have you had it?”

Keith shrugged, still staring out at the landscape, “I got the book from a library when my dad was still around. It was just this whole book filled with desert facts and different pictures. It was... it was the last book I got before, well, he disappeared.”

There was a moment of silence that passed, before Keith started again, “I started filling it up with random things that would remind me of the shack where I grew up. A baggie of sand from a playpit, a weird shaped rock from the schoolyard, pictures I took. It’s so used up and dirty now but...”

Keith closed his eyes for a moment, willing away his emotions. He couldn’t look weak in front of them, even if it was just Lance, his right hand through all of this. Shiro was always strong, Shiro would never cry in front of them. And neither would Keith. 

“It’s the last piece of home you have now, right?”

Keith looked at Lance now, surprised to see him staring back so caringly, his eyes glowing in the rising sunlight. 

“...Yeah,” Keith admitted, looking back down the cliff’s edge to the rocky bottom below, “ “Yeah, it is.” 

Lance sighed. “This is my fault.”

Keith turned to look at him again, confused. “What do you mean? Why would you say that?”

Lance looked out into the sunrise, shadows playing on his forming eyebags, “All I do is talk about home, how much I miss the sea, my little town, my house. I’m so focused on how much I miss Earth, well, I forget that other people miss it, too. Even someone as brave and fearless as you.”

Lance fiddled with a pebble on the ground, before tossing it over the cliff’s edge. “It’s

okay to hurt, Keith. We all do. We all miss Earth, and Shiro. And you’re allowed to miss them, too.”

Keith looked carefully at him, realization dawning on him. As the sun just started to hit over the horizons edge, he looked back towards the terrain, a small smile forming on his lips.

“You brought me out here to an alien planet to cheer me up, huh?”

Keith heard Lance chuckle. “Don’t sound so conceited, mullet. I totally would’ve done the same for Pidge and Hunk.”

“Yeah, I know,” Keith agreed, and they feel silent as the sun spilled over the horizons edge, turning the red rocks orange in the morning light. Keith took the moment in, the rush of the wind, the heat beating down on him through his armor, and the bright sun that swallowed his vision. And for the first time in awhile, with Lance by his side, the scenery around him, and the faint sound of Allura calling in to check on them in his helmet, Keith felt content. 

“Thank you, Lance.”

“No problem, buddy,” Lance slapped a hand onto Keith’s right shoulder, squeezing for a moment before letting go. 

Keith picked up his helmet and dusted himself off, a smile still evident on his face. He looked down at Lance, who mirrored his own expression. 

“Ready?”

“Ready,” Keith said, grabbing the hand Lance stretched out, “Let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me at tiredgaykeith and don't forget to leave a kudos and comment if you liked it, it's super, super appreciated!


End file.
